Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
I tend to focus on the emotional a lot harder than the visual. I can help a bit when setting up a scene and such, but I'm better making sure the characters are placed in the scene correctly and keeping them grounded in it. Also, I love to dig into characterization. Little quirks, habits, problems that are prone to resurfacing... Love 'em all! And I like to make sure they appear consistently in the story-unless, of course, there's something that calls for them to change. My number one priority, though, is that the *emotion* of the story is as close to flawless as possible. I like the flow of feelings to be realistic and capable of being related to, and I LOVE buildup! So if I beta your story, chances are I'll want to sit down and nitpick the feelings a bit. The plus of it is that your sad story will become a tear-jerker; your aggravating story will make readers rage along with the character they relate to; and your happy story will make someone's whole damn day.I will do slash, femslash, het, questionable, asexual, gen-I don't care. When it comes to couplings, I'm also pretty open. I have very specific pairings, oh yes, but when it comes to beta-ing... bring anything you want! As for editing sex scenes, I'll be able to do het and femslash since I've participated in both, and I've witnessed enough slash that I've got the general idea. And don't be squeamish, because I won't be. When I beta, I usually do all of it in just two sweeps. During the first one, I take the story piece by piece and check the grammar and punctuation, and make sure the characters and the descriptions are all going well. During the second sweep, I check the story flow and the consistency of both feeling and writing style. If you start out highly literal and straight-forward and then slip into artistic ambiguity, I'll be sure to point it out. Unless, of course, you make it work, in which case: More power to you! |
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
Punctuation and grammar, definitely. I will pro-grammar the hell out of your story, I guarantee it. x3 My real strength, though, is helping you get the reader inside your characters' hearts and minds and making the emotion reverberate enough that anyone reading your story will feel along with it. Also, description. I can describe absolutely anything (getting me to do so is the challenge. x3) |
My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
I'm not so good with scene description-which is not to say I won't try. But, just... chances are, I'll help make the characters pop and the backgrounds fade a bit. Also... fluff. I tend to be a bit clumsy on the fluff because of the constant cloud of angst that hovers over my head and sinks into every piece of writing I touch. x3 I will do fluff if you ask me to, though, I just won't be too much help when it comes to the emotions. |
Preferred: types of stories I prefer over others
Ooh, I'll do most things! I like one-shots, chaptered, drabbles... I love it when there's strong emotion flying around. I'll drool over anything full of passion and love and hatred and envy and all the darkness in people. I have to say, I prefer slash above most couplings in a story, but I'm okay with all three, so again: will do anything. |
Would Rather Not: I do not beta for these stories
Eh... While I'm not entirely closed up about it, I usually shy away from song!fics. Everything else out there is fair game, EXCEPT dub-con. Hell-to-the-no on that one. The excuses people come up with for rape these days are sickening, and I won't touch the stuff because of it. Non-con is fine, though. At least then the author and the characters are aware that what they're doing is portraying rape. |
